My fall/winter race schedule is lining up nicely with my marathon training plan:
August 17 - Furtive Trail Half Marathon (running for fun/training, not time)
October 12 - Over the River Run (local 5-miler and hoping to run fast!)
November 9 - Soldier Half Marathon (running for time as part of marathon training)
December 7 - Cajun Coyote Trail Race (as our scheduled 20-miler training run)
January 11 - Mississippi Blues Marathon!
I'm now financially committed to 2 of these 5 races (as in, registration is paid), and I'm getting really excited for my official marathon training program to start in just a couple of weeks! The Soldier Half promises to be fast, flat, and scenic. And not too crowded. So, since it takes place just up the road from GGmama, we're planning to make a long weekend of it and enjoy some family time after the race, which gives me extra incentive to train hard (but smart!) and do my best!
"The streets of Fort Benning and the peaceful, serene setting of the
Columbus Riverwalk form the backdrop for the brand-new Soldier Marathon
& Half Marathon, which makes its 4th annual running through this
southwest Georgia city in the fall of 2013, along an out-and-back course
that starts and finishes at the Army installation's new National
Infantry Museum, which opened to the public in 2009.
Dedicated to the life, service and heroism of the infantrymen who have
served the U.S. in war over the past two centuries, the 190,000-sq.-ft.
museum hosts an interactive tour with galleries detailing the
contributions of infantries in wars all the way back to the
Revolutionary War, leading up to the wars today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The museum is located just outside the gates of the Fort Benning Army
installation in the park known as Patriot Park, and this is where the
marathon and half marathons start and finish.
From the museum, those running the 13.1-mile half marathon can expect a course that's largely fast and flat and run on paved surfaces nearly the entire route. The race takes runners through two "halves," in a way, in that the first nearly 6 miles of the race are run along the streets of Fort Benning, starting at the Infantry museum and then proceeding on a loop that takes runners along Sigerfoos Road, Lumpkin Road, the aptly named Running Avenue and Baltzell Avenue before bringing the field back nearly all the way to the museum.
The second half of the race takes runners out onto the Columbus Riverwalk, a paved pathway for walkers, runners, bicyclists and inline skaters that stretches more than 20 miles along the winding banks of the Chattahoochee River. This nearly all-flat section of the half marathon route takes runners along the river for the entire second half of the race, where they can look across the river into Alabama as they make their way through a series of linear parks and bridges before hitting the turnaround point and heading back toward the museum for the race finish.
Both the half marathon and the full marathon share an 8:00 AM starting time, and runners in both races have seven hours to complete the course. More than 1,400 runners, walkers and wheelchair athletes crossed the finish line in both races combined at the event's 2012 running, including 824 finishers in the half marathon alone."
From the museum, those running the 13.1-mile half marathon can expect a course that's largely fast and flat and run on paved surfaces nearly the entire route. The race takes runners through two "halves," in a way, in that the first nearly 6 miles of the race are run along the streets of Fort Benning, starting at the Infantry museum and then proceeding on a loop that takes runners along Sigerfoos Road, Lumpkin Road, the aptly named Running Avenue and Baltzell Avenue before bringing the field back nearly all the way to the museum.
The second half of the race takes runners out onto the Columbus Riverwalk, a paved pathway for walkers, runners, bicyclists and inline skaters that stretches more than 20 miles along the winding banks of the Chattahoochee River. This nearly all-flat section of the half marathon route takes runners along the river for the entire second half of the race, where they can look across the river into Alabama as they make their way through a series of linear parks and bridges before hitting the turnaround point and heading back toward the museum for the race finish.
Both the half marathon and the full marathon share an 8:00 AM starting time, and runners in both races have seven hours to complete the course. More than 1,400 runners, walkers and wheelchair athletes crossed the finish line in both races combined at the event's 2012 running, including 824 finishers in the half marathon alone."
(Race recap from HalfMarathons.net)
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